The Wave (2019) Review
The Wave (2019) Review
After Hours meets Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and It’s a Wonderful Life in The Wave – Gille Klabin’s (Weekend at the End of the World) mind-bending, drug fuelled, black comedy sci-fi trip starring genre favourite Justin Long (Tusk, Barbarian, Jeepers Creepers).
Long is joined by a stellar ensemble including Donald Faison (Scrubs, Clueless), Sheila Vand (A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, Snowpiercer), Tommy Flanagan (Sons of Anarchy, Braveheart), Ronnie Gene Blevins (Emancipation, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It) and Katia Winter (The Boys, Dexter). Following its acclaimed US release, The Wave comes crashing onto UK digital 21 September, courtesy of Miracle Media.
When it came to reviewing director Gille Klabin’s The Wave, I was initially surprised to discover that this was actually made and originally released back in 2019. Seven years later, it finally arrives with an official UK release, and having now seen the film, I can perhaps understand why it has taken quite so long to get here. The problem is that there is very little about The Wave that feels remotely new.
Things get off to a promising enough start, with the ever-likeable Justin Long providing a voiceover as we are introduced to his character, Frank, an insurance lawyer standing in a trashed house and seemingly preparing himself to explain exactly what happened when its owners return. It is an intriguing opening that immediately raises questions about how Frank ended up in this predicament. Unfortunately, what follows struggles to live up to that initial promise.
Long remains an engaging and personable presence, and Carl W. Lucas gives us a lead character who is easy enough to relate to, but the screenplay ultimately offers little that we haven’t seen before. The film revolves around Frank’s increasingly bizarre experiences during a night out, with reality, memory and perception becoming progressively blurred. Told in a non-linear fashion, the narrative attempts to keep us as much in the dark as Frank himself about what is happening — or, more accurately, what has already happened.
There is certainly some fun to be had in piecing the evening together alongside Frank, but the film doesn’t provide enough substance beneath its fractured structure to make the mystery particularly compelling. Rather than becoming increasingly intrigued by what has transpired, I found myself simply trying to remember what happened during a particular point in the evening.
Even the much-anticipated twist towards the conclusion fails to deliver the intended impact. Rather than eliciting the hoped-for gasp of shock, it landed with little more than an understated “Oh, okay” from me. A twist can only work if the journey towards it has sufficiently engaged the audience, and here the destination simply isn’t rewarding enough.
The Wave did make its way around the festival circuit before receiving a very brief theatrical run in the United States at the beginning of 2020. Perhaps its belated UK arrival will give it an opportunity to find an audience, but for me, this is a film that arrives several years too late — and, more importantly, with remarkably little new to say.
The Wave is on UK digital 21 September from Miracle Media.
